AUSTIN, Texas — A dispute with renters and landlords has led to significant housing reform in Travis County that has statewide implications. Rosemont at Oak Valley residents still displaced because of storm damage repairs finally got a win after months of voicing concerns about conditions at the property.

The East Austin apartment complex is a low-income property bought and owned by a public housing agency called the Strategic Housing Finance Corporation, which is in charge of finding and funding affordable housing in Travis County. This resolution will change SHFC’s bylaws to include tenants on the board and adopt a “Tenants’ Bill of Rights.” It’s a major move to not only amplify tenants' voices but also to give them a seat at the table.

Rosemont resident Lisa Rheams already volunteered for one of the tenant board positions. The single mother and her sons have been living in temporary housing for nearly three months now.

“If we don’t try to fix it now, it’s going to keep happening to families in the future,” Rheams said.

Rheams is working part time cleaning houses, which she says is a distraction from the stress.

“I get to go and take care of someone else’s home and make it to where when they walk through the door, they’re happy to be at home. That’s what I’m looking for, too,” she said.

While she’s been making other families' homes warm and welcoming, she’s been fighting for the same basic comforts for her own family.

“It’s tiring, it’s exhausting,” she said.

She was one of dozens displaced at Rosemont because of unsafe living conditions. She and her neighbors say it took February's deadline winter storm to finally bring attention to the issue. 

“For a minute we thought no one listened, no one cared,” she said.

Then came the countless failed negotiations and meetings with SHFC. Tenants called into Travis County Commissioners Court every week to plead for help. People were finally listening but they weren’t taking action, until recently.

The court approved the system-wide changes within SHFC. It requires two current or former tenants of SHFC-owned properties to be on the board. The SHFC must also adopt a “Tenants’ Bill of Rights” that will be in all future lease agreements.

In a press release, the county commissioners court outlines the details:

• SHFC shall adopt a Tenants’ Bill of Rights, which includes:
• Keeping properties suitable for occupancy and in good repair
• Right to organize and participate in a tenants association
• Right to be treated with dignity and respect
• Policies on handling tenant complaints and unlawful discrimination
• Distribute surveys addressing property repair needs, management responsiveness and resident relations
• Use and maintenance of common areas
• Habitability rights, including the right to return to a unit if any repair process requires relocation and that SHFC shall bear the costs of any necessary relocation
• Granting requests for reasonable accommodations, modifications and information about the status of the request

Travis County Judge Andy Brown says commissioners were also able to use $1.6 million in federal assistance to pay for residents' rent during this tough time.

“It was tough process over the past few months but I think we got to a good result, and hopefully we’ll have a lot better lives for tenants in the future,” he said.

Judge Brown says this will give a new tenant perspective that has never been represented on the SHFC board before.

“It’s clear to me to avoid this in the future is to have better communication, have more maintenance done when tenants ask for it. Hopefully we won’t end up in this spot again,” he said.

BASTA project director Shoshana Krieger says this resolution will affect and protect more than 4,500 families living at SHFC properties.

“This is a sign of solitary with their neighbors who also live in SHFC housing to say that this won’t happen to us again, but this also won’t happen to ya’ll,” she said.

BASTA worked with Rosemont to negotiate these terms.

Krieger says this resolution will be a ripple effect for renters’ rights across the state.

“In Texas, which preempts a lot of local action regarding tenant protections, government housing authorities to have wide latitude to be able to dictate what are the housing standards,” she said.

While progress is being made on paper, Rheams has yet to see the proof. She’s unsure when she can move back and if the repairs will be as promised.

‘Hopefully when we go back, our places are ready for us, because I know a lot of us are ready for our places,” Rheams said.

Her family is now living in their second temporary home after their stay at the first location expired. The one positive from all this: Rheams say her sons’ health has been improving since they left their apartment.

“We can’t really afford that beautiful apartment in the hills, but we afford the one next door, and we don’t deserve to be treated like we’re lower than them,” she said. “We deserve to be treated like residents, like people, humans.”

So Rosemont renters are still holding their applause until they have returned to safe and healthy housing.

Spectrum News 1 has been investigating infrastructure issues since February’s freeze. We’ve found the majority of the storm damages and most of the properties still dealing with repair issues are low-income, public housing properties like Rosemont. Several others have had to fight just like Rosemont to negotiate for renters rights, such as Mount Carmel, Mueller Flats and Oaks on Lamar, to name a few.

All of these property owners receive federal funding and are regulated by federal, state and local agencies which are supposed to carry out routine inspections and make sure landlords follow compliance requirements.